T&T’s own Outlish Magazine has published yet another interesting article that is worth a read. (via @HaydnDunn)It is written partly in Trinidad dialect so feel free to ask for translations via Twitter or the comments section.

If a friend calls another friend a “fag”, does that make it funny? ‘Cause they’re friends nah, and is ah joke!

Now if the friend decides to rile up, people will say, “Boy, how you could be emotional so? Wait nah! Yuh crying? Buh like you is really a fag boy? Alyuh, look dis boy upset oui!”

This kind of jeering happens every day. Consider some of the scenarios. The girl in primary school who used to pee down herself, and was labelled “Pee-pee Girl”, until she escaped to secondary school. The boy who stuttered in ‘lessons’, and other boys would make stuttering jokes, while the entire class would crack up, before the teacher entered.

It wasn’t until his 30’s, Martin writes, that he began to feel comfortable with his sexuality but, even then, the singer admits he began to enjoy the ‘spice’ of keeping his sexual encounters secret.

He didn’t know how he would say it, but he wanted to say it, so he began to loosen the ropes little by little. The provocative video from the opening of his “White and Black” concerts, in which he appeared with words painted on his body such as “accept yourself” and “discover yourself” was the start of his coming out of the closet.

But it was the birth of his children, Mateo and Valentino, that gave him the final push . “When I held them in my arms for the first time, I not only realized just how simple and beautiful life could be, but I felt the need to be transparent with them,” says [Martin], who establishes his own commitment to defend the human rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people. He rejects discriminatory words such as “maricón”, “puto” and “pato” [words that can be interchangeably translated as “fag” in areas of Latin America].